1978 BMW 320A

This highly-original BMW 320 has the carbureted 2.0-litre 6-cylinder engine and a 3-speed auto ‘box. It was bought brand new by its current owner in September 1978 from First Front BMW of Wimbledon. Their showroom on Gladstone Road is still standing but is now an Evans Cycles shop - a sign of the times perhaps.

A single man - known to his friends as Mac, who has lived in Clapham his whole life - the owner bought the BMW as he was approaching his 50th birthday. Now into his nineties, he has only driven the car around 56,000 miles over the last 45 years and has kept it garaged when not in use - albeit a narrow one which may account for the scrapes on the wheel arches.

Most of Mac’s journeys were a little way out of London to go ballroom dancing each week. As you might gather from the AA-branded GB boot sticker from the eighties, he also did a little touring of northern Europe - France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.

When the pandemic put a stop to the dancing, he stopped using the car for anything more than taking it for an MOT. It has done little more than 7 miles over the past 3-4 years.

Our vendor is Mac’s neighbour acting on his behalf, who tells us that he had the car running and driving on the 31st of May, but when our photographer visited recently, it wouldn’t start. The AA were called and suggested that it was either contaminated or insufficient fuel. Nothing that should be too much of an issue to sort out.

The exterior of the 320 is painted in what BMW calls Turmalingrün metallic - or Tourmaline Green if you prefer - and has a black vinyl roof. It is fair to say that whilst the paint finish has been protected from the elements by the car always being garaged, it hasn’t shielded it from a few knocks and scrapes over the years.

It would be churlish to list them all but the more significant areas that would need addressing include the front where the kidney grille and bonnet nose have taken a hit and further into the bonnet where it looks like it has been closed on an object left underneath. The passenger door has suffered a knock towards the front and there are also scrapes across the wheel arches, most notably the nearside rear which has also started to rust where paint has been taken off.

Rust has also bloomed around the lower corners of the rear side windows and some small areas of light rust are starting to show through on the edges of wheel arches and sills. Aside from these more obvious defects, there are a few other small scrapes and age-related marks around the car - and a taped-up rear indicator lens that has broken.

The black vinyl roof and sunroof, however, look in good condition, with just some water or bird-lime marks on the vinyl and a slight patina to the metal surrounding the glass.

The 320 sits on its original 13-inch steel wheels - the same type as fitted to the BMW 2002 - and whilst they look a little scruffy and have light rust around the rims, they appear solid and undamaged.

Interestingly, the car comes with a set of lattice-pattern wheel trim rings but we can’t find any evidence of these being a BMW option back in the day. They’re in such good condition that we think they may have been bought later and fitted in an attempt to tidy up the look of the wheels but taken off very soon after.

The wheels are fitted with Marangoni tyres at the rear and a mix of Metzeler and Accis tyres at the front. Whilst all have sufficient tread, they are now rather old and starting to perish, so are only good for moving the car around a workshop.

Whilst the exterior of the car is rather battle-scarred, the interior tells a different story. Yes, there is the light patina of use around the door handles and window winders, and shoe-scuffing on the door pockets but otherwise the green cloth and vinyl interior looks in pretty good order and incredibly original.

The rounded-edge black dashboard and centre console angle towards the driver - a user-focused design concept newly introduced with the E21. Everything up front looks in very good condition with nothing appearing to have been changed from how it left the showroom - perhaps aside from the loose wiring on the brake pedal.

The door cards and seat backs are in a green vinyl and the facings are upholstered in a matching green moquette cloth. Aside from a little sagging in the driver’s seat, there doesn’t appear to be any undue wear or damage to the seats or interior trim.

As was common in the seventies but rather incomprehensible today, the rear occupants of this family car were each provided with an ashtray. We like to think that the kids would have used them for sweet wrappers rather than cigarette butts.

The green carpet is intact and just a little soiled around the footwells - having had no overmats for some while. Up above, the flecked headlining is intact and mostly taut with just a little bagginess on the sun visors.

There are a few small areas of rust under the front hinged bonnet, mostly on the structural pressings made from thinner steel. Otherwise the engine bay looks honest with nothing to hide. Whilst we understand that the car hasn’t been driven much for a few years, the history suggests that it was well maintained mechanically until then - as also evidenced by the recently replaced radiator and new battery.

The undersides are in pretty good shape too considering the age and unrestored nature of the car. There are a number of structures and components showing some surface rust but nothing that appears to have become more serious. The engine block and differential look a little bit oily and there’s the expected level of road dirt - especially in the wheel arches - but otherwise there seems little of concern underneath.

In a practice continued by BMW today, the boot lid has a small toolbox attached to its underside, although only a solitary spanner remains inside. Underneath the lightly stained carpet and floorboard is a full size spare wheel with Evergreen tyre, and the jack and wheel brace. The boot underfloor and sides look in very good condition, with no obvious rust, and the boot lid itself appears corrosion free.

The BMW’s last MOT expired in August 2022, soon after which it was put on a SORN. It is of course registered as an historic vehicle and is exempt from annual testing, but we like to see classic cars that get an independent assessment of roadworthiness each year - as this one did up to a year ago.

The history file contains a handful of invoices for ongoing sundry maintenance - most of them handwritten from an old school garage on Kings Avenue in Clapham dating between 2014 and 2018. There are also some from October 2019 relating to the purchase and installation of the new radiator.

The vendor thinks that there may be some more documentation on the car tucked away in Mac’s house. If he finds any, it will of course be passed on.

Whilst we have all seen ‘time warp’ cars and ‘barn finds’ being dragged out of a cloud of accumulated dust to reveal highly original, low mileage, unrestored classics - this 1978 BMW 320 was regularly used until the recent pandemic but still qualifies for all those adjectives.

This one owner car would surely make an excellent platform for someone who wants to get the engine running and preserve as much of the originality as they can whilst repairing and restoring the rest of the bodywork. We think it will sell for between £8,000 and £12,000 - and with NO RESERVE set, it is a very tempting proposition.

Despite well over a million E21s having been built and sold, we believe we’ve only had one other come through our hands - a Baur convertible. These solid cars set the direction for nearly 50 years of BMW 3 Series dominance in the now hotly-contested compact executive segment and were rightly included in the Design Museum’s list. Will this be a car that changes your world?

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with the vendor in London; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.